Caribbean Export OUTLOOK 2016

The Caribbean has a proud history as creators

of music and art, with increasingly more artistes

bursting on the scenes each year in the hopes of

not only becoming household names in their

home country and the wider Caribbean, but of

also crossing over to the international market and

becoming a global icon. The presence of a creative

and cultural sector within an economy has been

seen to significantly contribute towealth creation,

employment generation, and poverty reduction in

the region. Moreover, the creative industries are

widely accepted to be a growth sector globally,

following reports from organisations such as

the United Nations Educational, Scientific

and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which

reported an annual average growth rate of 8.8%

during the period of 2002-2011. The UK, for

example, has seen its creative industry double

in size over the last ten years, and is forecast to

grow significantly within the next decade. In

fact, governments internationally are recognising

the promotion of creativity as a key method to

promote economic growth.

The creative industries have been outlined by the

UNDP to be “the cycles of creation, production

and distribution of goods and services that use

creativity and intellectual capital as primary

inputs. They comprise a set of knowledge-based

activities that produce tangible goods and

intangible intellectual or artistic services with

creative content, economic value and market

objectives” (UNCTAD/UNDP, 2008, p.4). At

the 26th CARICOM Heads of Government

Intercessional meeting held in the Bahamas in

February 2015, the development of a Caribbean

Creative Industries Management Unit (CCIMU)

was prioritised as a priority item on the

Community’s agenda. Former PrimeMinister of

Jamaica, theMost Honourable P.J. Pattersonwas

given the responsibility to Chair a working group

to realise this goal, andCaribbean Export has been

charged with the lead role in the development

of the CCIMU that will focus initially on music,

fashion, festivals and animation.

Growth in developing country exports of creative

goodswas reported to average some 12.1%between

2002-2011 byUNESCOand in 2010, the Bank of

Jamaica reported that Jamaica earned US$23.8

million fromcultural services, which ismore than

the earnings from services in finance, business,

insurance and construction combined. The

Bank also noted that reggae icons like Sean Paul

and Shaggy earn more annually than Jamaica’s

banana industry. UNESCO and the United

Nations Conference on Trade and Development

(UNCTAD) indicated that inTrinidad andTobago,

the creative economy contributed approximately

4.8% of GDP in 2011 and approximately

3% towards employment. In Saint Lucia the

contribution of the sector to GDP has risen to

7.8% of GDP in 2010 from3.2% of GDP in 2000.

In spite of these impressive results, the Caribbean

remains significantly challenged in increasing

the sector’s contribution to sustainable

development due to the lack of strategic and

focusedmanagement, limited financial resources,

insufficientmarket intelligence andbranding, poor

linkages with the local tourism industry andweak

data collection. As noted by ExecutiveDirector of

Caribbean Export, Pamela Coke Hamilton “the

biggest gap has been the absence of a structure

that looks at the monetisation of the creative

industries for the region.” It is hoped that the

implementation of the right infrastructure and

enabling environment to support the creative

industries,throughtheestablishmentofaCCIMU,

will realise the potential gains of the region’s

creative sector. Currently, as pointed out byCoke-

Hamilton “we have nothing in place that actually

measures or gives tangible voice to what needs to

be done, howor what data can be collected, how it

can actually bemonetised, andhowwe can benefit

from intellectual property value in the creative

industries. Furthermore, we need to consider the

means bywhichwe canhave a strategic engagement

at the regional level to promote the Caribbean

creatives, and how we can ensure investment and

financing. In constructing the CCIMU we must

address the issues of establishing and utilising

a digital platform and creating an institutional

framework that enables the creative industry to

become a vibrant viable sector that has a coherent

and cohesive framework for development.”

The Caribbean does however have some national

bodies and regional organisations such as the

Publishers Inc. (COSCAP) which work with

composers and artistes in an attempt to collect

royalties, but the absence of a single body with a

regional framework to manage the entire creative

industries, pulling together all of the necessary

elementsrequiredtoeffectivelyrepresenttheartistes’

interests and achieve the monetary possibilities, is

absent. It is envisaged that the CCIMU would be

responsible for the collection and increasing the

availabilityofdataonthecreativeindustries,which

is often needed to access finance for the creative

sector, particularly for SMEs. Moreover the

CCIMU would work to enhance trade and export

development for the regional creative industries

sectorbyfacilitatingtheregistrationandprotection

of the IP of the Caribbean.

The creative economy is not

only one of the most rapidly

growing sectors of the world

economy, but also a highly

transformative one in terms

of income generation, job

creation and export earnings.

Clearing the Hurdles